


inspirit

by spookykingdomstarlight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Comfort, Extra Treat, F/M, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Slight Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 02:57:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8428753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/pseuds/spookykingdomstarlight
Summary: Her breath rattles around in her chest, shuddering on each exhalation. Her eyes prickle and her cheeks are warm, but she refuses—refuses to give into this.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ephemeralblossom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ephemeralblossom/gifts).



Leia stares down at her hands, her mind a careful, cultivated blank. After their latest—what? Run-in? Fight? Defeat?—setback against the Empire’s remnants, it’s the kindest thing she can do for herself, allowing herself to think of nothing, to, for a moment, _feel_ nothing. Her breath rattles around in her chest, shuddering on each exhalation. Her eyes prickle and her cheeks are warm, but she refuses— _refuses_ to give into this.

She’d thought it would be over. When the second Death Star exploded, she’d truly believed…

She’d been foolish is what she’d been. Foolish—and somehow still naïve. Despite everything she’s seen and done. After all this time.

Incredible.

The door chime sounds, a dull, utilitarian tinging noise, but before she can tell the person to go away or ignore them entirely, the door itself slides open. There’s only one person who would take such a liberty; there’s only one person she’d _allow_ to take such a liberty.

“Lando,” she says as he approaches from the foyer, his steps muffled against the carpet. Her back is to him and she turns her face away even further as she shifts on the couch. Why she wants to hide from him, she can’t say. When his hands settle on her shoulders, she sighs, leaning into the touch as his thumbs brush against her clavicles. She can’t help but smile a little, grieved though it might be.

“Hey,” he answers, his weight shifting as he bends down to brush his mouth against her cheek. “You okay?”

She closes her eyes and nods. When she takes his hand in hers, it’s smooth, hardly calloused anymore—they’ve all gone a little soft—and she brushes her lips across his knuckles, brief. “I will be.”

Slipping around the edge of the couch, Lando takes a seat next to her, his arm sliding around her shoulder. He tugs her toward him, her body settling tightly against him, the fit perfect. His cologne, a bit smoky and sweet all at once, tickles at her nose, familiar and welcoming. It’s silly, perhaps, that something so simple should comfort her—after the losses of the day, nothing should prove itself a comfort—and yet it does.

His mustache scratches at her forehead as he talks, almost mumbling against her temple. “We’ll get them,” he says. “There are only so many places they can run.”

She wants it to be true. Desperately. “The galaxy’s a big place.”

“These are their death throws. And we’ve got determination on our side.” His hand flashes through the air, maneuvering and twisting like a ship mid-fight before falling to his lap. “They can’t win now.”

“Hubris, Calrissian,” she says, biting back a reluctant smile.

He nudges at her slightly, letting her resettle against his side. “You like the sound of it.”

“Yeah,” Leia replied, her eyes shutting, some of the ache in her chest easing. Already the tightness in her chest is more manageable, the fear and anger settled. “Yeah, I do.”

Tomorrow, she’ll be herself again. She’ll take on the cracked husk of the remaining Imperial threat single-handedly if she has to. But tonight, tonight she’ll let herself have this.


End file.
